Mission & Philosophy
For over 60 years, North Shore Nursery School has demonstrated our deep commitment to early childhood education. Our nurturing and dynamic teachers celebrate the wonder of childhood while working with families to build positive and engaging first-school experiences. Our play-centered approach spans indoor and outdoor environments to cultivate curiosity, celebrate individuality and promote a sense of belonging. Our close-knit community grounds our approach, helping extend the classroom and develop diverse experiences that grow a lifelong love of learning.
Our Values
We value all facets of child’s development:
emotional, social, intellectual, physical, and creative. As the depth of their exploration grows, our curriculum evolves to meet their changing needs.
We value the nurturing presence of highly qualified teachers.
Our outstanding student/teacher ratio promotes the individual development of each child while creating a caring classroom community.
We value our child-centered teaching philosophy.
We respect young children’s natural sense of curiosity, exploration, play and joy.
We value our learning environments designed specifically for preschool children.
Our bright, roomy interiors stimulate young minds and bodies and allow children to feel confident and secure.
We value outdoor experiences.
Each day children interact with their natural environment and benefit from healthy physical activity.
We value our school community.
A warm welcoming place of learning and continual enrichment, for our children, families, and faculty.
As children progress through our program, we understand they will mature at an individual pace but through a predictable sequence of developmental stages. In their earliest years, they benefit from concrete, hands-on play that stimulates all their senses, and curricula that fosters growth in all domains of learning.
Socially, they are beginning to notice other children and include them in their play.
Emotionally, they are starting to distinguish and name their feelings, control their impulses, and use language to express their needs.
Intellectually, they are acquiring language, developing their attention span, and solving increasingly complex problems.
Physically, they are gaining strength, dexterity, and agility.
As children matriculate through our program, we tailor our curriculum and expectations to accommodate the changes in their development. We know that when we create “just right” challenges for each child, that they build self-efficacy which is derived through real time accomplishments.
Teachers present diverse and relevant themes to the children in their classrooms throughout the school year. The curriculum varies depending on the ages and interests of the group and may include subject matter inspired by: art, literacy, nature, science, social studies or social studies to name a few. Teachers set up their classrooms with intentional invitations, known as provocations, which invite children to engage with various materials in ways they may not have considered before.
As children engage with their learning environments, teachers observe, document, and ask relevant questions to gain insight and develop new directions of learning. Teachers continually share in the children’s inquiry process and model the joys of learning through play.